A Tragic Love Story
by lil-hermione-at-heart
Summary: Listen to Those Nights by Skillet It's one of those nights when Harry's nightmares won't stop haunting him. Now that he and Hermione are head boy and girl, Hermione hears every scream, every murmur, and every shudder and it's driving her crazy. How can she help the boy she loves when she thinks he doesn't return the feelings?


Chapter One

Hermione struggled to stayed in bed as she heard Harry mumbling in his room, and it wasn't pleasant mumbling. She groaned as she rolled onto her side, covering her head with a pillow.

_Why? _She constantly screamed mentally.

Finally, she caved, getting up and walking over to the door that led to their shared bathroom. Quietly slipping through it, she carefully watched her steps til the door to Harry's room was right in front of her. His mumbling came loudly through the door, to the point she could almost make words out of it, and she did.

"No, no leave her! Please, not 'Mione," he murmured.

Hermione jumped when she heard the nickname he had made for her. Her heart skipped a beat and continued to pound loudly in her ears. She had to take a few deep breaths to calm herself, now was not the time to get excited.

She snuck through his door, closing it quietly behind her. She tip-toed over to his king sized bed, much like her own, and sat on the bottom corner farthest from him. Her eyes drifted over the tangled sheets, his bare back glistening with sweat, his matted down hair, and his terrified face. Tears came to her eyes when she saw how hurt and painful his face looked. She wanted so much to just crawl up next to him, wrap her arms around him and try to find something comforting to say. But instead, she settled for staying in her place at the foot of the bed.

Flashes of her and Harry sped through her head as she remembered how they used to be before these nightmares returned. Many times they would stay up and listen to a radio and talk about funny things, or Ron, or all their adventures, or Quidditch even, if Hermione was in a good mood but when she was around Harry, she usually was.

She remembered her struggles on those nights, trying to keep her mouth shut about how she really felt about him._  
_

Sometimes she almost just didn't care what he said; holding it in was painful enough. But she never said a word.

She sighed as she got up and walked around to the side of the bed he was on. She cast a cooling spell over him to diminish some of the sweat then straightened out the sheets and covered him. She looked at his face and seemed somewhat peaceful, until his eyes started fluttering open. She panicked; doing the only thing she could think of, hide! She quickly fell to the ground and rolled under the large bed.

Harry's eyes slowly opened as his senses kicked in. He hadn't woken up cool and covered in a while. He had heard something fall to the floor but, sitting up and looking around he couldn't see anything that had fallen. He shook his head and got up, turning on his light.

Hermione watched, her heart racing, as she saw his feet hit the ground and walk over to the full sized mirror on the back of the bathroom door. Crap! That mirror was pointed straight at the bed! She closed her eyes and prayed he wouldn't look at the bottom of the mirror and see her hiding there.

Bad part was, she couldn't see anything higher than his knees.

She silently prayed that he wouldn't see her. Her eyes snapped open when she heard movement again. His feet were heading straight for the bed. She almost had a heart attack, until his feet disappeared to the bed above her. She could hear him shifting his weight around until he stopped. Her heart still pounding and breathing still heavy, she waited for him to turn out the light and go back to sleep.

They both were dead still for a good 30 seconds before Hermione let out a loud, surprising scream.

"Morning," said Harry's head, now dangling upside-down in front of her.

He slid off the bed, onto the ground, and rolled under the bed next to her. His sheepish grin spread across his face.

Hermione was about ready to punch him in the face; her heart still pounding like mad. She glared at him as he continued starting at her, grin still in place.

"You trying to give me a heart attack?" she asked.

"Yes," he answered, laughing.

"Well, you're certainly doing a good job!" she said accusingly.

"Hey, you're the one hiding under my bed!" he said, pointing out the obvious. "Which would you mind explaining _why _you're hiding here?" His grin faded and his face became the soft, comforting expression; the one he always used when he was trying to get her to talk about something. She remembered that too._  
_

She broke…

"Ok, I was in here because I heard you mumbling in your sleep again and I knew it was those awful nightmares of yours and I wanted to do something to help you. So I snuck in here and cooled you off and covered you back up. I couldn't help but do something; the look on your face was so awful that it almost hurt just to look at it. But when you started waking up I panicked and did the only thing I could think of! I just fell to the ground and hid, I couldn't think of anything else to do. I just prayed you wouldn't see me then go back to sleep and I could sneak out. But, obviously, that plan failed."

Harry started at her, a little confused because she had said it all so fast. But as he understood, his face relaxed again.

Hermione's cheeks had gone so red that it was surprising she wasn't on fire. She couldn't manage to look at his face, she had just said more than she intended. It would be a miracle if he didn't figure something out of that. But, of course, he did.

"Hermione, I think there's something you're not telling me."

_Oh really? And how did you figure that out? From the amount of blabber I just said or the awkward silence? _Hermione thought to herself.

"Come on, out with it," he said, looking her in the eyes.

"Ugh, I hate you Harry Potter!" she exclaimed hiding her face in her hands.

"I doubt that."

She groaned and mumbled something.

"Huh?" Harry said.

"I said I'm in love with you!" She said her hands falling away from her face.

Harry smiled.

"Why are you smiling? I just confessed that I'm in love with you and you're smiling like its funny!" she said, getting a little angry.

"I'm smiling because I love you too, Hermione."


End file.
